The first black metal album that didn’t fight me.
Today’s dive is a rare one: a band I’d actually heard before my descent into full-blown, eyeliner-streaked metal obsession.
Samael was already on my radar thanks to my husband’s suspiciously large CD collection—specifically the mini album Exodus (1998), Eternal (1999), and the symphonic version of Passage (1997). I filed them under "metal I can survive." Turns out I underestimated them.
Until now, I didn’t know about their earlier, grimmer beginnings. So I went back—way back—to their second studio album: Blood Ritual (1992).
Black Metal Roots, But Not What I Expected
Samael was formed in 1987 in Sion, Switzerland by Michael Locher (aka Vorphalack/Vorph) and Pat Charvet, before Vorph’s brother Xytraguptor (Xy/Xytras) took over on drums and keyboards. Later, Christophe Mermod (Masmiseîm) joined on bass. Their 1991 debut Worship Him is now a cult favourite for second-wave black metal fans.
So when I queued up Blood Ritual, I was expecting the usual: screeching vocals, chaotic speed, grim production, Satan screaming in the bathroom next door.
Instead, I got—groove? Atmosphere? SPACE TO BREATHE?
Opening Riffs and the Art of Restraint
The intro is pure black metal melodrama (in a good way). But then comes Beyond the Nothingness—and I was floored.
No blastbeats. No panic. Just a slow, throbbing riff that oozes confidence. For nearly two minutes, it’s just riff, drum, vibe.
And it rules. It’s the kind of heaviness that creeps in instead of explodes. It doesn’t try to impress you. It just exists, like a looming mountain.
A Slower Burn, a Heavier Atmosphere
The entire album clocks in at around 40 minutes with 11 tracks, and outside of the longer pieces (Macabre Operetta and With the Gleam of the Torches), the pacing is tight.
The tempo is slow, heavy, sometimes glacial, but never dull. Riffs stretch out and dissolve into gloom. When it speeds up, it never goes full chaos—it’s still measured, controlled, almost ritualistic.
You can hear the Bathory and Celtic Frost influence loud and clear, especially in the songwriting and vocals. But then, palm-muted Slayer-style chugs show up. And a little Kreator bite sneaks in. It’s like a blackened metal soup—rich, thick, and probably cursed.
The title track Blood Ritual is the only real burst of second-wave speed here—and even that feels like a nod rather than a descent.
The First Black Metal Album That Didn’t Fight Me
This is the first black metal record I didn’t have to wrestle with. No "acquired taste" curve. No "just give it five listens" compromise. I hit play and it worked.
The simplicity, the repetition, the pacing—it’s all weirdly inviting. It even works as background music, which feels blasphemous to say, but here we are.
And the deeper I listened, the more I noticed the details:
- subtle time changes
- tasteful synths and acoustic layers
- clever drum fills
- those little vocal snarls that pop out like curses mid-ritual
Each song has something unique to latch onto, even if they blend together at first glance. My favourites (so far):
Beyond the Nothingness, After the Sepulture, Macabre Operetta, and With the Gleam of the Torches.
All of them landed straight on the playlist.
This Won’t Be the Last
Blood Ritual surprised me. I came in expecting another corpsepainted wall of noise—and instead found a slow, deliberate, atmosphere-heavy gateway drug.
Like Bathory, Samael clearly evolves through their discography, and I’m now fully on board to explore that arc. So yeah—this won’t be the last time they show up here.
Stay tuned.